[Codehead]

Seeing as the Riftwar and Black Magician trilogies were getting bigged up in the GC request thread, should we have a 'Must Read' sticky here?

I'm thinking that we could have sections and only put stuff in the list if 10 members recommend it?

Here's a few categories to start us off.

General Fiction
Sci-Fi
Fantasy


General Non-fiction
(Auto)Biography
History
Sport

[Bill Hicks]

I don't read fiction so here's my list.

This House is Haunted by Guy Lyon Playfair. (Don't read whilst alone!)
The Link by Matthew Manning. (Ditto!)
Notes from a small island by Bill Bryson.
Moondust by Andrew Smith.
Future Noir (The making of Blade Runner) by Paul M Sammon.
Searching for Soul by Reg Stickings.
England's Dreaming by Jon Savage.

[Theydon Bois]

I love Fantasy, my chosen genre, and love the Riftwar Feist books - actually going back through them all now, just finished Krondor: xxxxxxxxxxxxx the first book where he went back in time to write 3 books based on the computer game that came out (Jimmy the Hand is one of them.)

In no order, my favourite books are:

Fantasy

Magician - Raymond E Fiest
Legend - David Gemmell
Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie

Sci-Fi

The Ivanhoe Gambit - Simon Hawke

Fiction

Emporer - Conn Ingulden

.....I have only listed one from each author, but most of the Simon Hawke series is supurb, I only dislike only one of the 30 odd Gemmell books, all of Abercrombies books are brilliant, Terry Pratchett's Guards are my favourite series of books from his, but most are brilliant, all the Feist books are very good...I could go on, and on, and on.....

[thariq]

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

I love Fantasy, my chosen genre, and love the Riftwar Feist books - actually going back through them all now, just finished Krondor: xxxxxxxxxxxxx the first book where he went back in time to write 3 books based on the computer game that came out (Jimmy the Hand is one of them.)

In no order, my favourite books are:

Fantasy

Magician - Raymond E Fiest
Legend - David Gemmell
Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie

Sci-Fi

The Ivanhoe Gambit - Simon Hawke

Fiction

Emporer - Conn Ingulden

.....I have only listed one from each author, but most of the Simon Hawke series is supurb, I only dislike only one of the 30 odd Gemmell books, all of Abercrombies books are brilliant, Terry Pratchett's Guards are my favourite series of books from his, but most are brilliant, all the Feist books are very good...I could go on, and on, and on.....

Simon Hawkes Books are brilliant the Ivanhoe Gambit is just the first in a series of about nine books

I am Sci fi and Fanstasy reader myself and these ae my must reads :

David Gemmell
Drenai Novels
Shannow novels - Think Clint Eastwood as a post apocalyptic gunman

David Weber- Honor Harrington and Bhazell
Horus Heresy Series Warhammer 40k - If iyou into the universe are good reads

[Stream62]

I tend to get hooked on series and there are a few in my bookshelf that i can read quite often without getting bored...

David Eddings - The 2 Sparhawk series and the 2 Belgarath series.
Julian May - Galactic Milieu / Saga of the Exiles Series (same thing in my mind)
Bernanrd Cornwell - Just about anything, a very easy read!
Steven Erikson - Currently addicted to the Malazan series, massive in scope and brilliant. A little hard to get into at first but once your in they are fantastic to read.
Terry Pratchet - Most of the discworld series are fantastic.

Just realised there is quite a lot there!!

[CTT]

My list:

Fantasy -
Donaldson - Thomas Covenant Chron. 1,2 and now 3 - Surprised no ones mentioned already as these are great reads
Martin - Game of Thrones - Not complete yet, but will probably end up as top fantasy series of all time imo
Jordan - Wheel of time - First six were superb, but meandered along since then for a few but has picked up again in the last one.
May - Saga of the exiles and galactic milieu - Very underrated but a cracking read
Erikson - Malazan series - Another superb series which can be hard to get into it, but well worth sticking with
And last but not least what about LoTR

Sci-Fi-

Not as much of a sci-fi reader but would recommend:
The Gap Series by Donaldson
Night's Dawn by Hamilton

[DPinBucks]

Originally Posted by CTT

...
Night's Dawn by Hamilton

Yes. I've been devouring Peter Hamilton since I discovered him a year or so ago. IMO the best SF writer of the recent past.

That being said, my Must-Read 5 are:

Catch-22
The Blind Watchmaker
Ringworld
The Stand (uncut)
A Brief History Of Time

[GasDad]

Thriller
The Killing Floor - Lee Child.
Jaws - Peter Benchly

SF
The Dispossessed - Ursula La Guin
Time Enough For Love - Robert Heinlein
Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
Ringworld - Larry Niven

Maths / Science
Godel Escher Bach an Eternal Golden Braid - the maths is great, the predicative logic superb, the dialogue fantastic, the illustrations unsurpassed, the typography superlative. A Truly beautiful book.

The Character of Physical Law - Feynman
The Selfish Gene - Dawkins
The Code Breakers - David Kahn

Non Fiction
Surely your Joking Mr Feynman
The Cuckoos Egg - Clifford Stoll
The Origin of the Species - Darwin (Try the 6th Edition)

History
The History of the Second World War - Liddle Hart
Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose.

[RMCF]

As this is mostly about fantasy/sci-fi, I am going to recommend a few books that aren't:

Stalingrad
Of Mice and Men
Shadow of the Wind (currently on this)

[Smurfin]

Thought I'd bump this thread up with mine:

Sebastian Faulks - Birdsong
Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner
George R R Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire (all of em!)
Robin Hobb - The Farseer & Fool trilogies

All of them amazing books, I also thought Hosseini's a Thousand Splendid Suns was an incredibly moving read too.

[littlesheepy]

My must reads of the top of my head are (mix of fiction and non-fiction) -

Five People you Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
Blood, Sweat and Tea - Tom Reynolds
Bridget Jones Diary - Helen Fielding
Harry Potter series
The Saga of Darren Shan books - Darren Shan
True Tales of American Life - Paul Auster
The Time Travelers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner

[Andy Dee]

My 5 Must Reads are;

The Kite runner - Khaled Hosseini (amazing read, brought lots of emotions out in me)

The Stranger Beside me - Ann Rule (the life of Ted Bundy)

Tell No-one - Harlan Coben (a good thriller, that led to me reading another dozen or so Harlan coben books, all good)

The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time -Mark Haddon ( Amazing book, written through the eyes of a boy with Aspergers. Great read for anyone, particularly if you want to see how an ASD person may view the world.

Cold Granite - Stuart Macbride (i love my thrillers, and this is the debut from a great writer. Based in Aberdeen, it has humour, horror and a great plot).